Obama's Victory For All

Chicago is no stranger to epochal events. Take the '68 Democratic National Convention. Or the Colombian Exposition. Or Great Chicago Fire and Chicago's transformation from a Midwest rail hub into an architect's dream. But I don't think anything compares to what we as Chicagoans witnessed the other night as we watched the young, energetic Barack Obama ascend from the political patchwork of Chicago and Illinois politics through to the US Senate and on to the highest plane of them all - the US Presidency.

Chicago became the center of the universe on Election Night. It was warm beautiful fall night. People filled Grant Park as if their destiny depended on it. Words of acknowledgment flowed from strangers and the press corps was giddy for the moment. A friend of mine rode his bike into Jesse Jackson on the street who could have been a symbolic figure in this election but chose instead to boast of his castration skills. The buzz in Chicago was deafening.

People around the world who didn't know where Chicago was on a map knew only one thing - that this is Obama's home. As people walked around the street as the election results started piling in they were also acutely aware that this too was their home. A pride swelled among all of us - Democrats and Republicans alike. The apathy among young people dissipated for this one day. For the first time in my life, I heard Republicans speak glowingly of this guy Obama, just hours after they had voted for the first Democrat in their life because they believed in him. Imagine, big shot lawyers and CEO's voting for the same person as union bosses and city workers, it actually happened. One thing I always admired about Chicago as segregated as a city as it is, is its ability to form a common fabric when it came to all things Chicago. In my life, I had only seen this through the prism of sports - the Bears, and the Jordan-led Bulls of the 90's. But now, something much greater loomed, one of our very own, someone who identified himself with our city was about to become a great piece of American history.

Beyond the city pride, I watched with incredulity papers around the world cover the US election as if it were their own. One of my cousins in London followed the election to a fever pitch and even came to Chicago to volunteer at Obama's headquarters. 82% of the Chinese population was for Obama, likewise in many other places. Why? I couldn't help but believe that the world was looking to us to give them hope that someday the barriers in their world would one day fall too - just as it did ours. We all need our heroes.

Like many young people, if I can call myself that, I grew up in an age of cynicism. I watched an era of divisiveness and contradiction pass by in which sound bites became daggers, where one president could be impeached over cigars and semen, and another president could go to war on a whim and was immune to it. In college, I advocated for a spread of democracy in places like Sub-Saharan Africa. But my argument always seemed to shallow when I spoke of our own democracy. It was like a drunk telling a drunk to stop drinking.

And that's the power of this election, that for one moment in my cynical life, I understood what American democracy was about. It was about Trust. Trust in the people to choose their own destiny and make a choice that sometimes does not benefit us individually. Trust in our elected leaders to lead us in the right direction and through difficult choices. And Trust that despite our regrets as a country, we have the ability to make amends. The ascendancy of George Bush and Sarah Palin was a sad commentary on the dilution, division and the self-interest inherent in American politics. In some way, Obama is a vindication of all that was rotten in our democracy and that night in Chicago was living proof.

There is something about Obama that speaks to all of us. For some he represents the triumph of post-modernism. Others relate to his cultural roots as part Indonesian, Kenyan, Hawaiian, Kansan, Chicagoan, or Bostonian. Progressives and globalists alike view his background as a confirmation that the world is returning to a Pangaea-state and that we are all brothers and sisters living closer to each other than you might expect. Some relate to his blackness, whiteness, color and color-blindness, his commitment to his family, professionalism, his mediocrity as a child and lack of pedigree, or his willingness to stand up for the middle class. But whatever your connection, I think the thread that connects him to all of us is his sense of humanity, his respect for family, and his genuine kindness towards people. Nothing perhaps is as emblematic of this than his calming smile which one senses comes from deep within.

The realization that Obama had been elected has unfolded slowly over the past few days, like a movie that you just can't seem to shake. Even after he won, I found myself with emotions I had no idea were just beneath the surface. My joy wasn't even that my candidate had won, but rather that my pinky liberal wish had come true - prejudice really could be put aside for a common goal. And, I can't stop thinking about every child both here and abroad who lacks a role-model in their lives and have stopped hoping for a better life - maybe this can give them a chance to believe in themselves again. Its all about perceptions, isn't it?

In a double life of sorts, I spend a good deal of time amongst the poorest in our society on the South Side of Chicago, and also some of the very richest as a lawyer in the city. But the beauty of the moment is that Obama gave people I met on both sides of the equation a moment to reflect on their deepest held assumptions, myself included. I believe this is where true change happens - from within and confirmed by living proof. And no where in the world could such an underdog be voted to such a position but right now in America. For the first time in a very long time, America's promise made me a believer.

S. Sood